Graphic Design
I think the slight blur amplifies the inebriated surreality of the whole thing.
Someone bought this and I didn't get a chance to ask what the occasion was.
We all have one.
Shouldn't it be "my" heart?
I think I was subconsciously designing an album cover more than a Hallmark slogan.
Someone bought it, though.
I friggin love this mini-menu. It is my pride and joy.
Jesus wanted something for the weight-conscious brigade, people working on their swimsuit bodies or whathaveyou.
Sometimes people gave them back to me when they finished their drinks. Usually they kept them. Once in awhile someone slammed it into the trash. Sometimes people threw it away nonchalantly.
Realistically, what are you supposed to do with cup art?
But also, why are we consuming so much to throw it away constantly, ya know? Not trying to get deep or anything, but it does sorta draw attention to a culture of disposability. It's funny in a way, those rare times when someone would aggressively smash it into the trash as if in rebuke, deliberately looking me in the eye. What was that even about? Kind of hilarious, though.
I do feel like it was a bit. Choreography of an existential joke. Everyone playing their part.
There's a cool ephemeral nature to drawings on a coffee cup. Now it's special. "Chosen".
It becomes the envy of undecorated cups.
"Listen, Jimmy's Paper Mug, we don't like the way acting lately. Putting on airs."
I gold leafed one.
I've considered getting into sublimation printing & sewing my own, but the markup on retail fabric is gnarly. Fashion design as a profitable career seems to be a game of scale, which requires a significant audience.
I don't have quite enough creative control through most print-on-demand companies to produce these to the quality that I'd like, nor currently enough demand to justify a wholesale B2B arrangement with some independent manufacturer, so currently these are design mockups only.
OVERVIEW
Once in awhile, something turns out looking really damn cool, but in terms of the 2D stuff, mostly it just looks passably "official". I'm not really innovating very much in this field, though the opportunity for innovation exists, though that's probably on me and I intend to step up my game in future projects and try to break out of my geometric comfort zone a bit more.
Why I did it
I wanted to do art but get paid for it and there is more demand for graphic design than illustration. At other times, people need help and don't have much of a budget and people who would charge them more will do worse work, so I take mercy.
What went right
I'm excellent at greeting cards and pretty solid at cool package design.
The more I deviate from the sterile templates of rigid rhomboidal elements, the more I treat it as actual art, the better it tends to go.
Challenges
The ever present tension between: What is fun? What grabs attention? What is legible? What is alienating?
Typography remains a bit of a challenge, but I've definitely improved over the years, taking typography courses online, practicing calligraphy and learning to design custom fonts.
Quality note
I'm okay at graphic design. Sometimes I think the hatred seeps through.
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